Twitter begins testing ‘Fleets’ feature that makes tweets DISAPPEAR after 24 hours just like an Instagram or Snapchat story
- The ‘Fleets’ are only live in Brazil and are almost identical to Instagram stories
- They can’t be retweeted or replied to, instead users respond via direct message
- Users can check someone’s ‘Fleets’ by tapping their profile icon
- Twitter hopes it will offer an alternative to more permanent posts
Twitter will take a page out of the playbook of Instagram and Snapchat.
The social media giant announced that it will test a feature that allows users to post tweets that disappear after just 24 hours, similar to the ephemeral story posts on Instagram and Snapchat.
The new style of tweet, which the company is calling ‘Fleets’ – a portmanteau of the words ‘fleeting’ and ‘tweet’ – cannot be retweeted or receive public responses, but instead can be interacted with through direct messages.
Instead of appearing on one’s timeline, users can look at the ‘Fleets’ by tapping on someone’s icon – yet another similarity to Instagram and Snapchat stories.
‘People often tell us that they don’t feel comfortable Tweeting because Tweets can be seen and replied to by anybody, feel permanent and performative (how many Likes & Retweets will this get!?). Many of us can probably empathize with this,’ wrote Kayvon Beykpour, product lead at Twitter in a tweet announcing the feature.
‘We’ve been listening to this feedback and working to create new capabilities that address some of the anxieties that hold people back from talking on Twitter. Today, in Brazil only, we’re starting a test (on Android and iOS) for one of those new capabilities. It’s called Fleets.’
The feature is currently only being tested in Brazil and its uncelar if and when the platform intends to roll it out more broadly.
For some users, the feature could represent a welcome shift in the more permanent nature of Twitter which keeps tweets on a user’s timeline until a user chooses to delete them.
The permanent record aspect of Twitter’s timeline has lead to some public figures taking heat in recent years including stars like Kevin Hart who was accused by penning homophobic tweets.
Likewise, director James Gunn was fired from his role as director by Disney during the filming of Guardians of the Galaxy 3 after tweets joking about rape and pedophilia surfaced.
Twitter said that even though ‘Fleets’ are ephemeral, they will be subject to all of the platform’s community guidelines on harassment and hate speech.
The platform says it will keep a copy of the post for a ‘limited time’ after it disappears and users can report posts that they think violates its guidelines.
It’s possible that given Twitters ongoing efforts to tamp down on misinformation that it could wait to release the feature more broadly until after the 2020 US presidential election.
Twitter has released a variety of new feature through the last year in an attempt to make its platform more user friendly and less prone to harassment and other toxic behavior.
Among the initiatives have been improved threading to make conversations easier to read and also a revamped set of community guidelines.